William Hastings for State House, District 46

William Hastings was born and raised in Chicago and attended Loyola University for my Bachelor’s degree. After earning a Ph.D. in psychology at Southern Illinois University, he settled into a career in teaching at a Christian liberal arts college in Western Illinois. Some years ago he was looking for a university town to retire to and chose Columbia which was for him a Goldilocks city—not too hot, not too cold; not too big, not too small.

Like most retired professors, William is a progressive in opinions but not an activist by temperament nor a rebel by inclination. But like most Americans, he realized that our country has lost its way. It is the fading of the American dream that got Trump elected, and both parties are responsible. He believes the Green Party to be the best way to think outside of the boxes—the ones labeled Democrat and Republican—that have confined our understanding of solutions. So, William decided to give the voters another choice for State Representative from District 46.

Perhaps our greatest bipartisan muddle is to assume America is too poor to solve our problems. America is awash in wealth; it is just not being spent to improve the lives of the ordinary citizens. Specifically, we must roll back the warfare state, what Eisenhower labeled the military industrial complex. We must stop overtaxing the typical family and increase taxes on those who can afford to pay. With the money saved we can provide better health care, improved transportation, and a return to the American dream.

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I went to the climate change demonstration in Columbia Sunday Sept. 16. I was disappointed to learn that the Green Party of Missouri has fielded a candidate for the 46th district running against Martha Stevens. Like Hastings, I am a retired professor. Unlike Hastings (according to his bio) I’ve been an activist for much of my life. At this moment we in Missouri cannot afford to have yet another Republican in the legislature, and with Hastings in the running that’s what might happen. We need to be strategic about electoral politics.
I was a Bernie supporter in 2016, but I held my nose and voted for Hillary. The Green Party’s aspirations are admirable, and the public needs to hear what they have to say. But as a strategy to change the political direction of this country, proposing electoral candidates to run against established progressives is not the way to go. Martha Stevens has a progressive history of supporting health care and education, and there is a republican running against her. We cannot afford to lose Martha Stevens.